A personal favourite, Uzbek knife

[ariel]

Motan has a point about the bush.
If this is correct, Saxaul ( saksaul, Haloxylon ammodendron) might be the answer. It is a ubiquitous desert plant with gnarly and very hard wood.

The raised tip of the blade suggests utilitarian use and such p’chaks were called «Kayке». I found a Russian article about Central Asian knives and it alleges that such form was dictated by Timur, to make these knives less useful for stabbing.The form with the tip below the spine line was called tolbargi ( ivy leaf) and was used by butchers. The third forn had a wide semilunar and sharpened indentation of the distal half of the spine and was called kazakhcha, after Kazakh fishermen of the Aral sea. Allegedly the indentation was used for scaling the fish.

The same article mentioned chinar (Platanus orientalis) and apricot trees as handle materials.

Mass produced p’chaks were forged from cheap low-carbon soft steel . This required very frequent sharpening usually done with the use of the bottom of ceramic tea cups. The positive side was the ease of sharpening in the field: any rock will do. Because of that p’chaks got progressively more narrow and were rather short lived. Expensive examples for rich people used high quality steel, including Indian wootz.